Feargrove
The Feargrove is an anomalous grove located primarily in the Heart of Darkness of the Kingdom of Night on Planet Oyg of the Oygan triple star system, beyond the Deathless Abyss on that Earth's side of the Axle. The Feargrove is accessible from four distinct locations: Planet Oyg, beneath Covenblight in Koneland on this Earth, rural Orewash on that Earth, and from within Dai Lo's Library (another anomalous location, which is quite frankly not notable for being able to access the Feargrove) across Calthoss' Creation. The Oygan Faith of the Nightchildren reveres the Heart of Darkness, so-named for its location at the center of the Kingdom of Night, the northernmost and most-populous country of Planet Oyg, as well as the sole country to receive any significant amount of night-time darkness (after all, Planet Oyg has three suns: Uri, Kri, and Rik - pronounced Urri, Guri, and Riga). Oyg is for the most part a desert world, with the exception of Night, which has several forests (with trees originating from Earth), and even a glacier and lakes within the Kwatt Crater. The Feargrove sits at the base of the "fearhills" at the center of the crater. It is always night time within the Feargrove. The Oygans revere this place because they can commune here with their ancestors using their psychic powers. They do this by singing with, dancing with, and giving gifts to the strange beasts who appear within the Feargrove (the Stewards of Koneland). The Feargrove can be accurately described as a blood clot within the vein of cosmic energy which flows through Koneland into the cosmic drain of Lohth. Here about sixty years after the first initial cases of lycanthropy/werewolfism, a wolfman known as Baken the Hero was born in a small cottage near the future location of the Ymetran Wall. Baken was at first extremely bloodthirsty, but after nearly consuming his own son, he resolved to overcome his nature, and use his abilities for good. He preyed on criminals, especially rapists, thieves, bad hosts, and other wolfmen. Soon enough, all other wolfmen either came to hate him, or respect him. He gathered under him thirteen blood disciples (all of whom were wolfmen), and found for them thirteen wytch wives. He recognized that their powers were dangerous, and should be limited or removed at all costs. He swore his disciples to secrecy, and cursed their bloodlines to only proliferate through wytches, and for their disease to be carried only by males. Finally, all twenty-seven of them gathered at Baken's birthplace where they purged themselves using a powerful reverse soulbond spell, expelling their vices all at once. This magickal event shot out throughout reality, barely missing Planet Geirkomo, whose inhabitants the members of the Rat Race recorded it as the Day of the Nightstorm. Unfortunately, it did strike the Exterminator class warship of the long-dead Emperor of Rat known as the R.I.S. Nevaks, meaning "Die Heretics!" The Nevaks carried on it a virulent form of Cancerattus, the nature of which was corrupted by the forbidden magicks of the soulbond spell, and led to the birth of weredevilism, and went soaring down into the Sunder Sea, one of the few remaining bodies of water on the planet. The magickal energy struck what would later become Orewash on that Earth, and transported one of the thirteen blood disciples, Kisif the the Skinner there, and imbued him with the sins and evils of all twenty-six of his comrades. Kisif would go on a reign of terror for thirteen years, rampaging throughout what would later become the kingdom of Sakhalia (that Earth's analogue to Russia in the real world). The rural tribe of Enida, led by a council of shamen foresaw his arrival and called on a heroine of the woods, Tyrkina (the mother of Tyrkhan the First, finder of Sinar), to slay him. They did battle, with Trykina leading an army of bestiolarum to fight him, and eventually winning by transforming the Skinner into solid redstone. Kisif became a boogeyman to the future Sakhalians, and a sort of living god to the future Orewashers. Tyrkina was forgotten; her curse by Kisif through the redstone. Kisif's redstone is different, and can be remembered and understood. In fact the Enidan's descendants, known as Yyudans, worship the redstone in secret, and consider it to be the last magickal artifact from before the age of myth that Queen Lynda Alanor ended. Kisif draws power from worship, and were the redstone ever to become public knowledge, his escape would be an almost certainty. The magickal energy also struck Planet Oyg, and created a large anomalous region, which bathed the planet in magickal energy, which allowed for it to advance farther than any other planet in the universe millenia before even the Mur. This of course was also their doom, as this magickal energy led Otak the Younger to create the star Uri, which eventually led to runaway desertification of the planet, and the near-ruination of their civilizations. On this Earth, the remaining disciples watched as Baken stood against the darkness, and prevented it from destroying the world. They buried the darkness under an artificial hill, and then built a small peasant town above it, Covenblight. Baken guards against the darkness even now, stony yet still alive. The Feargrove is undiscovered on that Earth, being in too remote, and cold a region of Orewash. It is of course, the original source of lycanthropy and vampyrism on that Earth. The Stewards of Koneland consider the Feargrove a site of worship, and come here to dance, and worship strange woods gods (the Oygans).Category:Cosmology Category:Locations Category:History